Baratta joined the New York firm in 1998 and in 2001, he relocated to London to help build Blackstone’s European private equity business. He will move back to New York in September, when his new role becomes effective.

A person familiar with the matter told Dow Jones that President Tony James has run the firm’s private equity business in addition to his other responsibilities, but that the expansion of the business’s size and geographic reach called for the creation of a dedicated position. Blackstone’s private equity business has about $47 billion of assets under management globally.

It remains to be seen who will replace Baratta to head up Blackstone’s European business. Nor is it clear how Europe is positioned in Blackstone’s strategy for private equity. A Blackstone spokesman wasn’t immediately available for comment.

Up until at least February, Europe still seemed to be a region in which the firm planned to increase resources. James told reporters back then that Europe represented “the most interesting” opportunity in 2012.

Indeed, James said on the same conference call that Blackstone was in the process of relocating a senior partner to Europe given the amount of opportunity there.

With Baratta’s appointment, however, Blackstone seemed to be making a move in the opposite direction. James, who had previously been chairman of Credit Suisse’s investment banking and private equity operations, has dealmaking in his DNA. It is therefore natural for him to share much of the day-to-day decision-making for Blackstone’s private equity activity.

In addition to James, Blackstone’s private equity group also counts senior managing directors Chinh Chu and Prakash A. Melwani among its senior members. Chu is also co-chair of Private Equity Executive Committee.

For private equity in other geographic regions, Blackstone has Michael Chae as head of private equity for Asia/Pacific; Antony Leung as chairman of greater China; and Akhil Gupta as chairman of Blackstone India.